


Mother Knows Best

by Starbound_Beast



Category: The First Law - Joe Abercrombie
Genre: F/M, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-10-12 03:39:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20557610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starbound_Beast/pseuds/Starbound_Beast
Summary: The elder Lady dan Glokta comes to meet the new Lady dan Glokta and child. Sand dan Glokta gets to watch.





	Mother Knows Best

Sand dan Glokta, the most hated, feared and powerful man in all of the Union was sat up in bed bleary eyed, body throbbing with pain, silently cursing himself for whatever bastard shred of compassion it was that had compelled him to marry Ardee West.

“Here, she’s been fed so she’s settled down a bit.” Unable to do little more than blindly hold open his shaking arms, Glokta accepted the infant in question. He heard Ardee hustle around their room to the wide window and winced when the sunlight filled the room. Blinking at it he found himself staring into the wide blue eyes of Savine dan Glokta.

She gurgled up at him clenching her little fist into his bedclothes and he cursed as a spasm of pain knifed down his spine.

“Cursing in front of the baby,” she tutted, straightening her bed, “Starting early on that corruption aren’t you?”

“Of course,” he hissed. “What time is it?”

“Oh about six thirty. High time we get you ready and out of bed. Do your sheets need changed?”

“Miraculously no, but why-”

“Do you need me to bring you anything? How’s the pain this morning?”

“No worse or better than it is any other damned day.”

“Well, that’s good. Up, up then.” The baby was picked out of his arms and placed on her mothers bed. Ardee made a move to grab him and haul him out of bed a little rougher than her custom. Manhandling he would call it, but not suffer it. He pushed at her until she stopped to look at him.

“Woman. Pray tell, what has crawled into your ass this morning and caused you to be such a nuisance?”

She frowned. “It’s today. She’s coming today.”

_. . . Oh that explained it then. The dread Dame Cardenia dan Glokta comes calling upon her recently promoted son and his new family. Come to inspect that the new Lady Glokta and issue are acceptable to the breeding line._

“Ardee, my mother is a consummate bitch of the aristocracy. Nothing you can do or say will impress her, save the fact that you married me and had my child.” _Supposedly._ But then, Glokta was definitely not the type of man to mention such a thing aloud and Ardee was as always willing to go along with the ‘truth’. It had saved her life after all. “Even then she will still find fault. It’s the sad truth of it I’m afraid.”

“I know. But I still have to try and make some kind of impression.”

“Very commendable.” He accepted his cane from her and braced himself to stand. “But you really needn’t get yourself so worked up over her opinion. Either it will be that you’re common, or perhaps that Savine is a daughter and not a son.” Inspiration took him and he adopted a higher pitched, imperious impression of his mother. _“The child cannot yet speak? Disgraceful. A testament to the infirmity of plebeian blood.”_ He chuckled; he was not above laughing at his own jokes. A fact Ardee loved to mercilessly mock him for. He roused himself finally to standing and managed with minimal pain. He found his wife staring back at him, her beautiful face set like stone, squirming daughter in her arms.

“I’m serious Sand.” Obviously so, if she felt the need to use his name. It was still so strange to hear her say it. “It’s not that I care about her opinion. I want to prove her opinion wrong. If she’s such a frigid old bitch like you say, I want to be the peasant that is more than worthy to be the wife of the Arch Lector of Adua.”

It took him a moment before the shock became amusement. “A very worthwhile pursuit my dear. One I can wholeheartedly support.” Ardee dan Glokta gave him a brilliant smile that was as wide and white as his was holey and wretched.

-

The household of the Arch Lector employed many servants. No mean feat considering how reduced was the population of prospective employees after the Gurkish invasion. But they were many. There were four who kept the grounds of the estate. Three to keep the horses and the carriages and one to be chauffeur. Two maids who saw to every need of the lady of the house. In the kitchens, a staff of accomplished soup, gruel and porridge cooks. Barnum was still a fixture in the household as his master’s valet, although his duties were largely reduced. There were also the ex soldiers he paid handsomely to be guardsmen.

The loose tongued lady’s maid that Ardee had kept in her own house was not among the staff. She was not missed. Not by any but her own family anyway.

The only servants they did not employ were any variety of nanny or wet nurse. Before Savine had even come into the world, Ardee had staunchly opposed to any sort of remote parenting such as was common among the nobility and the upper class.

“Not that you came out _so_ awful in the end.”

That had given him a hearty chuckle, a guffaw really.

“But I’d prefer to give my child better than I got anyway.”

Even smiling she had looked on the verge of tears.

“I’ll try my best not to be too much of a corruptible influence, but I can’t promise it will last.”

Ardee _had_ said she needed someone who needed her. Who better beside the crippled wreck of a husband than a helpless infant? In any case, she was already accustomed to persons who shat themselves and could not eat solid foods. He had said as much and she had laughed her tears away.

He regretted being so supportive when it happened that Savine was her mother’s constant companion. Ardee, being a resourceful woman had fashioned herself a very unfashionable sling for her baby. She carried the child almost anywhere she went.

Currently, said child was noisily slurping at the generous breast of her mother, comfortably swaddled in her sling while Ardee absently pet her dark blonde head. Glokta watched them from his favored chair across the sitting room.

Glokta was not a public man. He went only where his presence as Arch Lector was needed. He very much did not care about appearances and so did not care how he was perceived in the fashionable circles of Adua’s finest. It was all the same to him, he preferred his own company and was growing very fond of Ardee’s. That was more than enough.

Children, he had barely tolerated the notion of. Long ago he had resigned himself to their regrettable eventuality as a member of the aristocracy. After returning home from Gurkish hospitality, he had accepted with ease that they would never be a presence in his life. Such was his distaste for them. It was even uncomfortable to watch such a blatant display of motherly affection._ Is it the act that makes me so discomfited or the child itself? It’s certainly not the view._

He coughed, once and then louder when Ardee did not look up. When she did finally, her absent face turned to smirking almost as though she could sense Glokta’s thoughts.

“Why, Arch Lector, you pervert. Are you jealous of a baby? I do have two breasts you know.”

“Tempting,” he sneered, “Though I doubt very much I’d fit in a sling.”

She looked up at him through her eyelashes in such a way that clenched something inside of him. Either in his chest or the region of scarred flesh that had once been his cock. He could no longer tell.

“Oh, I don’t know. I have a large lap.”

He swallowed, his hand clenched around his cane.

“I was just thinking about how . . . Fitting it is that our child is a blonde.” Her face fell and absurdly he felt guilt of all things. “That is to say, mother will be pleased. Mark my words. I was blond after all, before my hair turned pale.” She had been about to open her mouth to retort when a page boy arrived at the door. Barely a child himself, the page waited there, eyes averted and practically vibrating with fear.

“Yes?” Glokta barked. “Do not wait on our account idiot boy.”

“A-Apologies your eminence! The Dame dan Glokta has arrived. Her carriage is in the yard.” Glokta flicked his wrist carelessly and the boy dipped his head in a couple of spasmodic bows, and ran from the doorway.

“A wonder that boy doesn’t piss himself every time he’s bothered to do his job.”

“Should we go out to receive her?” Ardee asked, a look of panic in her eyes as she buttoned up her blouse.

“My mother knows that I don’t stand on ceremony. These days I prefer not to stand at all if I can help it.” She still looked unsure and made no comment about his heinous joke. “Besides, I doubt very much you want to be jumped upon by a hundred pounds of dog. I certainly don’t.”

Moments later, the butler stood to attention where the page had been and announced her ladyship’s odious arrival. The creature in question then materialized behind him and strode imperiously into the room.

Dame Cardenia dan Glokta stood as tall as her son had been once, but was as stout and strong as he was himself now shriveled and bent. She had a square jaw and a handsome face, but the grim line of her mouth made her look all the more dour. She wore an immaculate traveling coat made of the finest spun wool money could buy. No doubt it smelled of dog as much as it looked so fine. There were however no actual dogs in sight.

“Ah, Mother! You look healthy.” She ignored him.

“Imagine my surprise when I heard you had not only become engaged, but married and with a child on the way. I’d like you to do that. Imagine. Put yourself in my place if you can, humor your poor mother.” She strode toward him, her voice even and high, her eyes fixed to some unknown space just above him. “The shock I felt at not being involved in any part of the process.”

The space in question turned out to be the mantle of the unused fireplace just behind him. He didn’t bother to turn, the pain in his spine wouldn’t have been worth it. Instead he met Ardee’s fearful eyes and winked. His other eye began to twitch. She stared back at him just as rigid as ever, hands clasping around the child in her arms.

He sighed and rocked his neck to pop the vertebrae there. When he turned his head he was met with his mother’s hand in his face, outstretched finger placing some unknowable blame.

“Dust. On the mantlepiece.” She tutted. There was no actual dust on her finger as far as he could see, but she wiped it off on her coat all the same. “And no firewood kept near by?”

“Well you know how it is mother. Hard to find competent help to keep a household this large. The title and estate was inherited from my predecessor, his help was not.”

“One should think the salary of the Arch Lector would more than compensate for the hiring of such help. To keep the fireplace in such a disarray, shows very badly on the part of a host.”

“It’s summertime.” Ardee, having chosen to speak for the first time was then the center of the room. Up until that point, Glokta had noted with no great surprise that his mother had not even dared to look her way. “No point in it really.” She shrugged.

The dame made a noise not unlike a wasp in the back of her throat. Sharp and high. She said nothing, but stood beside Glokta’s chair still as though they operated with one agenda: to glare at the offensive vermin in the room. He smirked at the look on Ardee’s face and settled back into his comfortable chair, eager for the show.

“I don’t know how much Sand wrote you, but I’ll start with the basics. I’m the former Ardee West. Of Angland. Not dan. My brother was a good friend of Sand’s. He served in Sand’s regiment in the Gurkish war. My brother was the late Lord Marshal West actually.” No quaver held her voice, no tears built in her eyes. To his never ending amusement, she had even thickened her accent somewhat.

_Good girl. Let the old hag have it all in one go and choke on it for all I care._

“I know who you are, girl. I had the pleasure of meeting your brother once.” It didn’t sound like she had found it pleasurable but on the whole, little did please her. “I found him . . . Acceptable.”

Acceptable. Very generous praise indeed from the woman who had less than acceptable puppies drowned.

“I seem to recall him being turned away from seeing Sand following his return home to Adua. Collum was very put out.”

His mother snorted her offense.

“I couldn’t very well have half of the army in my home while my only son was laid up in considerable agony.”

_Half the army? _That gave him pause. He knew West had attempted to come to him. Did his mother imply he had other would be visitors she had turned away? He tried to imagine Salem Rews, piggy little suck up that he had been, and wondered if he had come calling. Maybe he would ask Pike later. Not that it would much matter.

“Well certainly a couple of good friends come to see him wouldn’t have been so much trouble. Sand came to see Collum in hospital when he was injured, to ask for my hand and once just before he passed of the wasting illness. It meant so much to him, and to me.”

Glokta had done no such thing, but Ardee was ever an impeccable actress. Her eyes downcast, gave the impression of a woman given to sudden swoons and rashes of emotional fancy. The only time he had ever seen the cool headed woman act rashly was when she drank. She didn’t drink so much these days.

Savine chose that moment to cry and kick at the confines of her little fabric sling.

The pure infant, animal cry for attention caught them all off guard it seemed. Glokta had forgotten her presence during the volley between his wife and mother. Ardee had not, but it had given her a visible start and she leant down to coo at the baby. His mother had not started, but he could almost feel the tensing of her body from where he sat beside her. It came as a shock to her all over again to be reminded, he supposed, that she now had a grandchild.

He had long known that his mother had harbored a resentment for him for his condition(as though it were his choice to be a miserable cripple) and his seeming inability to find a wife and procure children. The reality was that even in his detestable state, there were many eligible, respectable women, if not the most desirable, more than willing to marry a man of his means. His mother had even tried to set such matches up herself in the past.

It had all come down to the fact he had grown sick of his mother dictating his life and had limped out of the cursed family estate as fast as he could to come to Adua to find his own way. She could not keep his title, or his inheritance from him but she could hold a hatred for his unwillingness to fulfill his "noble duty." Sheer physical impossibility and his desires be damned.

So it was no surprise to him that she might soon be suddenly inclined to be pleasant to the commoner who had given her what he had refused her so long. He just hoped that Ardee realized she could have his mother in the palm of her hand.

"What was the child's full name Sand?"

"Savine dan Glokta." Ardee answered her instead, her pinky in the so-named infant's mouth.

"Ah. A very respectable name." Glokta turned his neck at that. The woman held herself straight and rigid, arms to the side of her fine coat, one hand clenched around her kid gloves. Perhaps Ardee _did _realize the game.

"Would you like to hold her?"

Ah so she _did_ know.

His mother didn't respond right away. Ardee undid the sling at her nape and swaddled the baby in it like an expert. Then with one last motherly, tender look she rose and made her way toward his mother, who for her part stood as still as death. He was almost worried she would refuse, but she held out her arms and accepted the infant.

Baby and woman made eye contact and any doubts or worries he had were melted away. Her entire body relaxed, dare he say melted at the sight of the child in her arms. She looked up, no doubt with some soupy and strange emotion at Ardee and then looked over her shoulder at Sand so he could plainly see the whole effect the child had on her. He smiled as best he was able and Ardee beamed at her.

"She's so lovely Sand," his mother whispered as she looked back down at the baby in her arms. "She is so like you as a baby, so fair. She's so beautiful; a little tow-headed angel. Hello my dear little Savine, I am your Grandmother!" He would have been sick at the amount of saccharine sentiments coming out of her mouth had Ardee not shot him a look that plainly said to hold his tongue. He shot her back a look he hoped conveyed his _"I told you so" _in perfect, smug detail.

Perhaps Ardee had worried for nothing. His mother was getting her fondest wish fulfilled after all this time. Perhaps his mother and Ardee would get along with Savine in common between them.

"I thought so myself," he said. "Oh by the way Mother, I had wondered, where are your dogs? You usually don't go anywhere without a pack of the beasts."

"Hm?" She hummed, her eyes closed in rapture as she pressed her nose into baby Savine's hair. "My man Ravos will be taking care of my kennels in the foreseeable future. As I am going to be staying with my granddaughter."

Glokta nearly choked on his own spit, flecks of it flying out of his mouth as he coughed out, "What?" Ardee slapped his back none-too-gently a couple of times. Almost he felt she was taking revenge on him for his mother.

"Of course I must stay," she said matter of fact. "You are newlyweds and you the Arch Lector! I only want to help, to ease your burden. And of course to get to know Savine! Isn't that right my darling!"

Help? This was an accursed _nightmare_. He'd almost rather be tortured again then have his mother's "help". He felt Ardee's hand clench on the back of his shirt, uncertain. In that second before he could say another word, his mother had the baby above her, looking up adoringly into her blue eyes and the baby looked back down and promptly puked on her grandmother's face.

"Oh." He heard Ardee breathe. "I forgot to burp her I'm afraid," she said with a note of amusement.

A very entertaining, accursed nightmare to be sure.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote most of this immediately after finishing The last Argument of Kings. I was super giddy because of the last couple of Ardee/Glokta scenes in it (the PROPOSAL had me a dead bitch. listened to that one like three separate times) and I was just itching to write something about their life together after. I actually have a couple of more ardee/glokta ideas after this one I may try finishing, but i wanted to finish this one first, before A Little Hatred comes out(i'm a procrastinator, but one day counts lmao). I'm so stoked for it. I know it's going to ruin me but i'm sooooo ready. I can't wait to meet Savine!


End file.
